Upcoming Training - Nick, Jacques, Sandra, Carmène

Old Minutes

Tim asked for any corrections to the minutes from August 12, 2008. Carmène motioned for them to be accepted. Dani seconded it.

All agreed.

Membership Report - Steven

As of October 7, there are currently 641 registered members. 589 are Manitoba residents and 227 have been active in the last 6 months. Since the last meeting, August 12, there are increases of 50, 51, 32 respectively.

Treasurer Report - Peter

Total available funds are $1339.05. (Note this is much abbreviated from one given verbally at the meeting by Peter) Jacques motioned to accept the report as Peter stated it. Sandra seconded it. All agreed.

Old Business

GPS Central Ad Renewal – Dani, Peter

Dani will contact GPS Central about renewing their ad on the MBGA webpage as their current ad has expired.

Hiding Seminar – Sandra and Tim

Published. Presentation still needs to be finalized as well as speakers.

Pictures of good and bad types of caches will be forward to Sandra.

Cache Placement/Law Enforcement Issues - Tim

It was discussed whether an official letter we written to various local law enforcement agencies to make them aware of what geocaching is and how to deal with caches found.

After much discussion, it was felt that educating cachers about cache placement, like not near railways, under road bridges or other similar public infrastructure, was the better route to take.

GeoVentrue 2009 – Tim, Paul (MtOlympus)

15 teams responded to the GeoVenture 2008 survey. Abbreviated results are as follows:

Breakfast was a great hit but need more pancake griddles to keep up with demand

Burgers and hot dogs were great.

Challenge was great but a bit complicated and long. Teams tackling the challenge should be created mixing new cachers with experienced cachers.

Night cache was great.

Cacher Bingo was a great hit and more games around the camp site would have been good.

Picnic shelter was great.

Could be closer to washrooms/showers.

Look into having food donations from Maple Leaf, Tim Hortons, etc.

Look into placing some temporary caches around the group use area.

Generally having it in August is better than September.

Look into having an evening outdoor movie if possible.

Event listing is too long. Look into creating a supporting page to link into event listing showing all activities.

Paul is already working on next year’s challenge. Tim will help with planning and try to get it down to a 2 hour challenge that all can do.

Fall CITO – Scott (Lizardo)

The fall CITO event was canceled as area selected had already been cleaned up by another group.

Winter Hiding/Finding Contest – Steven, Dani, Paula

Need a winter event to kick it off or end the contest. Possibility a skating event along the ice trails on the rivers in Winnipeg.

Pub Nite Update – Sandra

Next Pub Nite will be around Halloween.

Will try to have the following one possibly in conjunction with the end of Travis’ (Chewy) GeoGolf series.

File Repository – Steven

Some directors are having trouble using the FTP site. Steven will look for alternatives.

Policy Review – Tim

Tabled until November 2008 meeting.

Membership Renewal – Tim, Steven

All MBGA site registered users who have not logged in for one year will be sent a notice to see if they want to continue their MBGA membership. They will be given the option to login to the website to continue their membership, instructions on how to delete their account or if they do nothing, the account will be kept in a dormant state and not counted as part of the membership. These e-mail notices should be sent out soon.

Web Page Subcommitee - Steven, Sandra, Tim, Carmène

Sample “Getting started” page was created by Sandra and Steven. Project needs a graphic still and some fine tuning.

How to Enter Waypoints? – Dani

Dani and Carmène noted that at geocaching training courses/seminars, the most common thing people ask is how to enter waypoints into their own GPS units. Dani will start a thread in the forums to start collecting simple instructions on how to enter waypoints for the various models of GPS units available today. This is a better way for trainers to collect, learn and/or provide info to new cachers about their specific GPS unit as likely some other cacher(s) use that same unit.

Training Page – Tim, Carmène

No progress yet.

Long Term Goals – All

The idea of having a long term goal to strive for in the next year was discussed again. Some ideas were to attract more people to events, create a place for track logs of various parks in Manitoba, increase membership, create a new geocoin, etc.

Tabled until the next meeting.

Leisure Guide (English) – Dani, Carmène

Course was on September 27, 2008 with Dani and Carmène as trainers. 20 people attended which was the maximum allowed but there was a lot more interest. Several things could have been done better had there been proper training information and equipment available. Also 2 hours is not long enough for this course, so 3 hours should be a minimum. Carmène will create a check list of items needed or need to be improved for next time and all directors will help to fill in the blanks so current and future trainers will be more prepared.

It was also suggested that increasing the course fee to include the rental of GPS units for all 20 course participants would eliminate the issues faced when sharing GPS units or having to know how all GPS units work when participants bring their own.

Leisure Guide (French) – Jacques, Carmène

Carmène will find out what is going on with this course as nothing has been heard yet.

Manitoba Moose Sport Short – Jacques

During breaks in the Manitoba Moose hockey games, they play 10 minute video clips about other sports. Jacques helped create a video on geocaching today. It should be airing soon.

Request for help with Class school trip to the Zoo – Carmène, Sandra

Carmène is looking for the questions and answers about endangered species used in the zoo caching contest so this class can use them when they cache at the zoo. Sandra will try to find and forward them to Carmène.

New Business

Inquiries FAQ – Paula

It was suggested that an FAQ be created and kept on the FTP site about how to answer commonly asked questions received from inquiries via the MBGA web site. Paula will put something together.

Example caches for Training Purposes – Carmène, Tim, Dani, Peter

Carmène asked for a kit of cache containers and common cache contents to be created to be used for training purposes. Tim, Peter and Dani all indicated they could get a container(s) to Carmène to help create this container kit.

World Caching Ad Inquiry – Steven

Steven noted that World Caching was interested in advertising on the MBGA website but have not submitted a graphic for the ad as of yet.

Mountain Equipment Co-op Club Night – Tim

Tim asked if we should have another club shopping night at the MEC? After some discussion, it was decided that if we could combine a shopping night with another club(s) it might be more worth while to MEC as they would get more traffic that way. Tim will inquire and ask for possible dates.

Newsletter Time – Tim

Tim asked for ideas for extra items to add to the shorter newsletters as it’s about time another one was sent out. Items suggested, were “Winterizing your Cache”, Hunting Season, Hiding Tips, etc. Tim will send out the next newsletter soon.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 18, 2008. Location is TBA.